Free Republic

President Joe Biden’s (D) administration has reportedly admitted what terms were used when federal investigators wanted banks to surveil Americans’ financial transactions after the January 6, 2021, protests. According to Fox News, the outlet obtained a letter wherein the government admitted that “MAGA,” “Trump,” and “Kamala” were among the terms, the news source said Friday.

Several Freedom Convoy protesters, buoyed by a recent victory in Canadian federal court, said they’re preparing to sue the federal government, banks, and the police that brought the 2022 protest to a heated end.(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Shutterstock)“I think it’s the second phase to what took place with the federal court case,” military veteran and plaintiff Eddie Cornell said. “We’ve got a big hill to climb, but it’s something that’s necessary. It has to be done.”On Jan. 23, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley issued a ruling against the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act in response...

Following a federal court ruling against the Canadian government for using the Emergencies Act during the trucker convoy, several plaintiffs plan to sue.. Several Freedom Convoy protesters, buoyed by a recent victory in Canadian federal court, said they’re preparing to sue the federal government, banks, and the police that brought the 2022 protest to a heated end. “I think it’s the second phase to what took place with the federal court case,” military veteran and plaintiff Eddie Cornell said. “We’ve got a big hill to climb, but it’s something that’s necessary. It has to be done.” On Jan. 23, Federal...

Farmers not sufficiently 'woke' can have accounts shut down without notice.. Farmers are under attack in multiple food-producing nations now... empty stores in France, where a climate agenda threatened the production processes for farmers, and they more or less staged a strike. ... And just recently, in Germany, farmers blocked highways in protest over costly and unnecessary agriculture policies. Now, however, there's a new campaign against farmers, in which the United Nations works with banks to debank the food producers, closing their accounts and not allowing them to operate their businesses. ... officials from 12 U.S. states have sounded an...

Heads up folks… I’ve been on my soapbox sounding the alarm about the banking system for the past several months. We had 6 banks crash and collapse last year in 2023 and many thought the Banking Crash was over. I kept telling you it wasn’t. I kept telling you I feared that was just the prelude. This is one of those times I wished I was wrong, but it’s not looking like I will be. In fact, it’s looking like the Bank Crash 2.0 is right around the corner. Here’s what’s happening right now as I type this: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\\\ Disclose.tv...

Banks are shutting hundreds of branches a year - this month some 41 closures were announced in a single week and among those affected were nine US Bank locations. Bank of America, Chase, PNC, Citizen, Capital One, First National Bank of Pennsylvania and Huntington also said they were axing branches. Such closures deal a huge blow to customers looking to visit in person to submit a document, make a withdrawal or deposit, cash in a check or simply run through their finances with a trusted bank manager. Others, particularly the elderly, may struggle with accessing banking services online due to...

His critics call him Prime Minister Zoolander after the vacuous male model in the movie of the same name. But Canada’s Justin Trudeau is someone much more sinister. That’s been obvious ever since the PM turned the federal government’s power on the COVID-mandate-protesting truckers of Canada’s Freedom Convoy in 2022, jailing them, seizing their rigs and even shutting down their bank accounts (“debanking,” as it’s known) — though that last came to a swift end when enough Canadians withdrew their money to threaten a bank run. We were told the truckers were “right-wing extremists,” probably racist and possibly agents for...

The recently-retired banking oracle - who forecast the 2008 housing crisis - made the dramatic prediction this week.. Bove, 83, claimed other analysts won't make the same admission because they're 'monks praying to money' who rely on the mainstream financial system.. It comes despite the collapse of its property sector, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the country's economy, and US growth ... China will soon overtake the American economy and the US dollar will catastrophically collapse, according to famed financial analyst Richard X Bove. In a characteristically histrionic forecast, the recently-retired 83-year-old banking oracle has announced that 'the...

Rising interest rates, the remote work trend, and the dominance of e-commerce sellers have combined to hammer the commercial real estate market over the past few years. Sky-high office and retail space vacancies are plaguing owners in this new environment, rents are plummeting, and borrowing costs have soared. As a result, U.S. commercial real estate prices have fallen 11% since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in March 2022, the IMF reported last week, the worst decline in over 50 years. The outlook for the sector is now so bleak that Cantor Fitzgerald’s billionaire chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick...

Washington State Democrats are defining the 2024 legislative session as an all-out war on gun rights. They are not only trying to impose licenses on gun ownership and a per-bullet tax. Now, far-left lawmakers are trying to put gun shops out of business with insurmountable, frivolous costs under the lie that it’s about public safety. What they’re asking for is not possible, and that’s the point. Federal Firearms Licensed (FFL) shops are subject to intense regulation, requiring significant investments in security under penalty of loss of license, business-ending financial punishments, and jail time. HB 2118 would completely upend the high...

Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Jordan says, "We now know the federal government flagged terms like “MAGA” and “TRUMP,” to financial institutions if Americans completed transactions using those terms. "What was also flagged? If you bought a religious text, like a BIBLE, or shopped at Bass Pro Shop." https://x.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1747718053365010737?s=20 https://x.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1747718064374730900?s=20

On Wednesday, the Republican majority on the House Judiciary Committee revealed even more drastic examples of government surveillance and breaches of privacy in the aftermath of the peaceful protest on January 6th, including the searching of Americans’ private bank transactions. According to Fox News, the Judiciary Committee and the subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government described their latest findings in a letter obtained by Fox. The letter states that investigators ordered banks to search through their customers’ private transactions for key terms such as “MAGA” and “Trump,” while also claiming that the purchasing of “religious texts” were a...

A U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary subcommittee is seeking to question a former official in the U.S. Treasury's financial crimes enforcement office over revelations the agency urged financial institutions to flag customer transactions linked to phrases like "MAGA" and "Trump" as well as purchases of religious texts. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, sent a letter Wednesday to Noah Bishoff, the former director of an office in the Treasury's Strategic Operations Division of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Requesting a transcribed interview with Bishoff, Jordan stated that the subcommittee obtained documents...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is pushing to reduce the overdraft fees Americans are charged at banks and credit unions when they don’t have enough money in their accounts to cover spending, which could save customers $3.5 billion a year, the latest in a string of crackdowns on fees by the Biden Administration. Key Facts Under a new proposed rule, large financial institutions could either charge a flat fee for overdraft payments that aligns with the service’s cost, or provide the same disclosures and protections for overdraft services that are required for credit cards and other loans. If banks choose...

"China's state-owned banks are tightening curbs on funding to Russian clients as they fear being subjected to secondary sanctions from the U.S., according to a Tuesday report by Bloomberg... "...Chris Weafer, chief executive officer of strategic consultants Macro-Advisory Ltd., which focuses on Russia and the Eurasia region, previously told Newsweek that Russia should be wary of this increased reliance on China. "While China is eagerly buying energy and materials and selling Chinese-made goods to the Russia market, all of which suits Beijing, there is very little investment coming into Russia, certainly nothing like enough to replace the lost investment from...

The Federal Reserve quietly lost a fortune in 2023 as interest it pays out to banks swamped the interest it earns on its bond portfolio, data released by the central bank Friday showed. The Fed said it lost roughly $114.3 billion in 2023, its largest-ever annual loss. The losses occurred because the money the Fed pays banks for reserves held at the central bank exceeded the interest earned on the mortgage bonds it holds. The Fed has been raising the interest rate paid on reserves alongside the hikes on the benchmark federal funds rate to stem the worst inflation in...

71-YEAR-OLD BANK ROBBER ARRESTED AFTER $64,000 HEIST ISAI ROCHAJANUARY 11, 2024 Bruce Edward Bell,71, was arrested after a string of bank robberies in Los Angeles. In his most recent December heist, Bell allegedly stole more than $64,000, maneuvering his way to restricted areas of the bank and demanding that employees fill his bag with cash. “During this incident, Bell entered the location, grabbed an employee and pointed a firearm,” the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said in a statement. “Bell forced the employee to walk over to an access-restricted door. Bell demanded entry into the secure area and stated he...

Top U.S. bank JP Morgan Chase on Friday reported $49.6 billion in profits for 2023, a record for the bank, despite a sector crisis that shut down multiple smaller institutions. Profits for the year were up for the bank despite net income bringing in only $9.3 billion in the fourth quarter, falling 15%, while the company brought in $39.9 billion in net revenue, up 12% for the quarter, according to JP Morgan’s fourth quarter earnings report. JP Morgan’s record profits come after a year of crisis for the sector, starting with a bank run in March at Silicon Valley Bank...

acknowledging a "clearly disappointing" quarter marred by one-off charges that resulted in a $1.8 billion loss. ... in the middle of a multi-year effort to cut bureaucracy, increase profits and boost a stock that has lagged peers ... "The fourth quarter was very clearly disappointing," CEO Jane Fraser .. We know that 2024 is critical." ... layoffs from the sweeping reorganization, Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason ... Citi will also no longer count 40,000 jobs when it spins off and lists its Mexican consumer unit Banamex in an eventual initial public offering, eventually aiming to reach a staffing level of...

Large US banks reported mixed results Friday, dented by exceptional costs connected to job cuts and to replenishing a federal fund tapped during last year’s crisis involving midsized lenders. But while consumer credit quality has diminished somewhat, executives continued to describe a relatively solid US economy, with talk of a recession replaced by a “soft landing” of slower growth. “We think the soft landing is a core thesis,” Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said on a conference call with analysts, adding that consumers are “still in the game” even as consumption has shifted from retail goods to going...